US abandons nuclear bunker-buster research

AFTER months of wrangling, the US has abandoned controversial plans to research nuclear "bunker busters". The Bush administration had been eager to study such weapons, designed to penetrate deep into the ground and detonate a nuclear warhead.

Proponents of the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator (RNEP) said it would allow US forces to destroy buried weapons dumps and communication centres. They also argued that underground nuclear explosions would produce less fallout than surface or airborne ones. But critics of the project said it would be hard to devise a weapon that would burrow far enough to contain the nuclear explosion.

Now the National Nuclear Security Administration, responsible for developing and maintaining US nuclear stockpiles, has asked for the RNEP project to be scrapped, and on 26 October the Bush administration decided to stop funding it.